This week went by incredibly fast. I can't believe it is already April, and another preparation day. It's beginning to become more difficult as the weeks go by to remember what happened this week. We did a lot of finding this past week and really just opening our mouths to everyone we see. It's kind of funny to put it in a bigger picture; here is this 20 year old guy walking around this big city talking to everyone he sees. The general aspect of it seems strange to me too, but opening our mouths is but a fraction of the work, but sometimes it can be the hardest for some people. I am glad I overcame that hurdle a while ago.
At any rate, Jacques is doing alright. Unfortunately he couldn't meet this work, nor did he go to church, which was a bit of a bummer. I still call him every night and we talk and read the Book of Mormon. He was so set on coming to church this Sunday, but the problem he faces is that he works Saturday nights from 8 pm to 10 am Sunday morning, all night. By the time he is back, he is absolutely wiped out. He got a hold of anti-mormon material on accident, but talking to him about it, I found out that he doesn't buy it. Meaning, he doesn't believe what they say, because he has been talking to us for several months and he knows that we aren't what the other people say we are. It was actually pretty cool to hear that from him because he was going off on how they were wrong and that we ware good people. Talking to him last night as well, he wants us to come over tonight and he wants to feed us. I had to tell him no to the food, which wasn't easy (hahaha), because I know that he is a starving student here and that he really should feed himself, not us. But we are planning to come over to his dorm again tonight. There is a member in a our branch who is African and speaks French who really wants to help. I think I might have mentioned that before, but I hope he can help Jacques which his testimony and to bring him to church.
This week, we went contacting and signboarding with Yegor Sotnikov!! You probably do not remember that name among the flood of hard-to-read-in-English Russian names that I write each week. He is a new convert that got baptized last summer in the Center branch right before I got transferred there. I had the privilege to teach him the lessons after baptism. He is one of the most solid members in our branch. He is 19 and planning to serve a mission. He also just got the Melkezideck Priesthood and wants to help anyway he can with the missionaries. We went contacting and signboarding with him two separate times down Nevski Prospect. That it in itself was a lot of fun. There something about working with members in missionary work that invites this wonderful Spirit to the work. It makes it a lot more enjoyable and in a lot of instances, fun stuffs!
Oh yeah, this week, as the title so cleverly states, we got rid of the Office Missionaries in our mission. They just got transferred to another area. So our mission doesn't have Office Elders anymore, and now we are putting them up to some real missionary work, and not organizing closets, and keeping track of mail and packages. So, this week, it was a lot of readjusting without the office elders there. So we had a few new duties added to us, but nothing too much of a hassle.
Miracle Story!: So we got this list of phone numbers of men in the sisters' area book. So we took some time to call a few with no success; either the number didn't work, or they didn't pick up. We got hold of one and we tell him who we are. He asks again we we were, and we thought that he was going to hang up right after he heard the word "missionary", but we told him again anyway. He then asked, "are you Mormon?". We responded, "Yes." And then he replied, "I love Mormons!" so we ended up talking for a long time with on the phone. Apparently 7 years ago, he was 15 and wanted to get baptized but his mother wouldn't give him permission. We talked with him some more and he told us he really wanted to meet, and so we did with President Clark. He has since changed his views and believes and is an active member of another church, but it was a miracle nonetheless. It's not an everyday thing to hear someone so happy that you called them and wanting to meet.
We were also calling former investigators and found this one man named Vladislav who was taught by missionaries exactly a year ago. He too also wanted to meet and we met on Saturday and talked with him. He is a very sincere guy that wants to know more about us. Again, the Spirit was really strong during the whole thing and he wants to meet more. He had never seen the branch building; he had only met at the institute building on Fontanka, but he was stunned by the size of the church building here. The unfortunate thing is that he is a sailor and he is going on a 5 month voyage to Argentina. He really wants me to call him in August. I wrote it in my calender to remind me haha.
I gotta get going here. But I love you all! The more I feel the Spirit in my work here, the more I realize how blessed I really am to serve a mission. The church is still true!
Love,
Elder Tekulve
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